Vanuatu Pre-Match Camp

Vanuatu Pre-Match Camp

Does anyone know why the pre-match camp is being held in Sydney?
Half the squad are based here in NZ and there are direct flights from Auckland to Port Vila.
The National Body is crying poverty and declared it will post a loss for the year if the government does not give it sufficient compensation for the Fiji game.
At first glance it would appear more expensive to run the camp in Sydney than NZ.
We now have the NZ based players and staff all having to fly to Sydney. Presumably they are in a hotel there or are they located in the NSW Insitute of Sport?
Happy for someone to confirm otherwise but it looks like a waste of valuable funds.

I would imagine it would have something to do with The Phoenix playing in Queensland. Therefore many of the playes are already in Australia. I imagine flights to Vanuatu may need to go through Australia anyway? flights and the likes will be cheaper for overseas players. Probably help them aclimatise to the heat also.

The Phoenix players would still need to fly from Brisbane to Sydney. Presuambly this was at Phoenix expense.
They will then fly Sydney / Vanuatu / Auckland Wellington presumably at NZF expense.
They could just as well have flown Brisbane to Auckland at Phoenix expense (return trip from game - same as going to Wellington)
Even if the flights end up a zero sum (for international flights presumably Thai Airways are coming to the party) accommodation and travel around Sydney is way more than here in NZ.
Truth is we will never get told the cost of this so waste of time debating. However my money is on NZF spending more than necessary and then crying poverty.

Do we have all the facts ?

How often do they fly to Port Vila From Auckland if it's once a week that's no use. Or if it's only Tuesday or Wednesday and there is one pitch of questionable quality in the whole City then that's too early as they can't train there.

I imagine they want to get in and out as late and as early as possible with a minimum of flight time which might mean Sydney and timeframe/heat acclimatisation is the only option. 

I also wouldn't rule out most of the expenses being covered by OFC, it's their tournament after all.

Air New Zealand flies Akl - Port Vila and back on Sundays.

Flights to Port Vila leave Auckland early morning, arriving in Vanuatu around 8.30am.  If I remember rightly, flights out of Australia arrive at far better times of the day and won't need early morning check-ins.

Another point the Phoenix players who fly from QLD to SYD are covered by the FFA.

Remember that its probably also cheaper to fly the European and American based players to Sydney then onto Auckland, plus better facilities, same time zone and climate, makes sense to me, especially given how Ricki seems to enjoy travelling the night before a game.

Good questions. The camp is in Sydney so that the team can access flights direct to Vanuatu as they wish - rather than the very limited flights out of NZ. It will not cost any more than in NZ, as the overseas players have just returned to Sydney, not NZ. Oceania pays for travel to the game in Vanuatu, so they can pay for that travel via Sydney. Hotels cost wherever - so, net-net, it will not cost NZ Football any more. It is actually cheaper. The big extra cost for us in this campaign is getting two teams down to Wellington - Oceania do not pay for that, so the big risk to NZ Football is that we do not get a HUGE crowd in Wellington!! So - over to you guys!!

We'll do our best Seatts, but $27 plus Ticketek's mercenary handling fee isn't doing us any favours with the people I have been encouraging.

Most certainly worth $27. I want to come up for it but I have exams